There is a lot of activity in the neighborhood. After
the debris was cleared recently by the Corps, yesterday I noticed that
probably 60% of all homes had a fresh pile of debris including
demolition and massive amounts of dead vegetation.

I have found it somewhat bizarre and aggravating that despite the
street being relatively unparked, people are parking directly in my
driveway several times per week. It's as if some people do not have a
clue what a driveway is. I noticed a nonresident photographing some
homes the other day, and I took his picture which resulted in him
questioning ME as to whether I needed anything from him. I
replied that a photograph was enough.

I would encourage anyone who is back to keep your digital cameras
ready and near your door and to photograph any suspicious activity.

Additionally some rude dog owners have returned allowing their canine
to poop on my driveway. I guess Katrina can clear the city out, but it
cannot cure rude, careless people. Sorry to be so negative, but the
whole situation is so frustrating sometimes and then to have new literal
crap added on top can be aggravating.

Anyway, I have been very busy keeping the site up and even adding a
new "How To Prepare and Respond to Disaster Situations" section
including online document storage and mold remediation:

Krewe de Vieux was a lot of fun last night although it was very cold
and windy. I'll post some pictures in the future. Their theme was "C'est
Levee" and floats such as "Home is Where the Tarp Is" were hilarious.
"Chirac Please Buy Us Back" was another good one:

Mold is not harmful to humans despite all the hype UNLESS you inhale
large amounts of it or eat it. The spores of the mold may have toxins in
them but the spores do not remain airborne. They are so heavy that they
fall directly to the ground. It is very unlikely that "sick
building syndrome" has anything to do with "toxic black mold."

I have been actively implementing another aspect of my
personal emergency plan: online storage of documents and presentations.

If one stores their documents online, the necessity to be near a
specific computer or file cabinet at the time of an approaching disaster
becomes much less important. You can access all of your important
documents from any internet-connected computer anywhere you are (unless
you are already dead.)

I am currently storing all of my licensure information, board
certifications, automobile and home insurance information, titles, CME,
health information (I created a self-generated medical summary),
presentations, papers, articles, valuable photographs, financial
information, birth certificates, tax records, etc. Just about anything
that you would put in a physical file can be uploaded.

The neighborhood is bright and sunny today so I'm
feeling a bit upbeat.

Personally I'm leaving my basement unfinished until I find out about
the situation with the levees this hurricane system. I'm going to go
with a bare industrial look - only enclosing the basement bathroom in
industrial plastic and replacing a few doors. I'll also touch up my
paint job later this year. The yard was pruned of all the dead boxwood
and lagustrums leaving my home (4146 Vendome) more exposed than in the
past 15-20 years. Surprisingly it doesn't look half bad. I'll also be
updating my kitchen just a tad.

I'm pleased to report that quite a bit of reconstruction work is
going on especially on the 4000 and 4100 block with work seeming to
taper off toward the far end of the 4200 block. There are 4-6 or more
FEMA trailers on the street now. There are probably 6-8 homes occupied
on at least the upper floors also. Electrification is continuing to
progress as one can assess by driving down the street at night. It gets
pretty dark at the far end of the 4200 block.

Cox, Bellsouth, gas, electricity, water, sewage are all available in
case you don't already know that. Garbage collection took place on
Thursday and left a thin layer of styrofoam peanuts all over the
vicinity. That's always nice.

The street was cleaned up by the Corps of Engineers recently and it
looks semi-respectable. Of course, more debris has been stacked up since
that time.

I'm not aware of any security issues except that someone was shooting
fireworks last week on Groundhog Day. Someone on Vincennes was shooting
fireworks on New Years Eve; I went over to ask them not to do so and got
a very negative reaction as well as some low level threats. They claimed
that they were not aiming the rockets over homes although quite clearly
some rockets had been launched toward my home and those nearby. The
recent fires at the theatre on Thalia and in the Marigny underscore the
risk with anything incendiary. However, there is no way to control the
situation without a show of force which unfortunately is not available.
My understanding is that the NOPD will not assist with these issues.

The NOPD's new tact that I have observed is to park their cars near
intersections with their lights flashing while they talk on cell phones.

When the weather is beautiful like today, I feel upbeat. When the
neighborhood is strewn with debris and the weather is wintery, I feel
somewhat less so.

They provide a quick photo tour of our street. Some are not very well
exposed due to the morning backlighting from the sun.

Please take the time to do the following:

1. provide me with contact information for any contractors,
electricians, roofers, plumbers, demolition people, floor people, etc.,
that you have had a good experience with

2. provide me with any information that may be useful to our
neighborhood

3. check out the petitions that are linked from my website regarding
the levees and the levee boards and PLEASE forward these links to all of
your friends and family http://www.vendomeplace.org/links.html

4. send me any email addresses that you would like me to add to these
updates

5. send me any press clippings that you would like to have included
on the site

6. consider putting up a bird feeder at your home. The poor birds are
having a hard time with the absence of vegetation and insects. I've put
out about 200 pounds of seed this Winter so far.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Jim Zachary 4146 Vendome Pl

3 feb
2006

All - We had a GREAT Meeting last night. Thanks to
those of you that attended. We are really excited about our next big
project - a HUGE neighborhood clean-up on Feb. 11.

The New Orleans Revolution is working hard, but we still need your
help! Please help by promoting this great event. Attached is a flyer to
pass out to EVERYONE you know!!

We also need volunteers on Feb. 11 to help us CLEAN the neighborhood,
and also to help with our post clean-up party (we'll have jambalaya and
refreshments). Please let us know if you can help us out. You can
contact us here or by calling 504-231-8214.

The New Orleans Revolution will be holding a
general membership meeting on Thursday February 2. Please make plans to
attend! The meeting will be at 6 PM at the home of Harry Fuselier (5518
Coliseum St.). We’ll discuss our next big clean-up to take place
on February 11 in the Broadmoor / Fontainebleau area. Also - we will
have a guest speaker.

You may reply to this e-mail if you have any questions although RSVP is
not necessary. We look forward to seeing you.

KATRINA Krewe: Saturday, Jan. 28th 9am to noon. Washington and S.
Broad, meet on the corner at the Spur. With enough people we can branch
off in 4 directions, so come in full force! Jazz band around noon. Look
for Katrina Krewe signs and safety cones. For more info.
check out
http://www.cleanno.org

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR ORLEANS PARISH ELECTIONS
Individuals who would like to become certified to serve on election day
as paid poll commissioners for elections in Orleans Parish should
contact the Orleans Parish Clerk of Court's office at telephone
504-962-5522, fax to 504-962-5537, or send an email to clerkofcourt1@hotmail.com.
In order to serve they must attend a 2 hour training and certification
class and pass an open book test at the certification class. There are
classes on Jan. 28th & Feb. 4 at the Jewish Community Center (5342 St.
Charles at Jefferson Ave. - Uptown) at 8am, 10am or 12pm. Individuals
serving as commissioners will receive $100 per election and must be
registered to vote in Orleans Parish. Their current residence is not an
issue as long as they have not changed their voter registration to an
out-of-parish address. They must be at least 17 years old and not have
been convicted of any election offenses.

Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans - Rally in Baton Rouge
Monday, February 6, 2006 from 12 Noon - 1 p.m.
Opening Day of the Special Legislative Session. Buses depart from
Audubon Zoo at 9:30 a.m.
Whether going by bus ($10 per person) or car a count of participants is
needed. Make rally reservations for bus and cars at
www.citizensfor1greaterneworleans.com or call 504-891-6415.

Desire NOLA will be hosting a large fundraiser at the end of
March 2006.
More information will be announced via a press release in the near
future. If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please
contact chris.kane@desirenola.org.

On Saturday, January 28th Broadmoor residents
will meet on the neutral ground on Napoleon Avenue. Our mission is to
place a flyer on every property in Broadmoor inviting ALL Broadmoor
residents to attend their first Sub-Group Planning Meeting (A, B, and C)
the week of January 30th -February 4th. Broadmoor has had great
attendance at the rally and meeting. Now it's time to take take the
future our great neighborhood into our own hands.

Please join us as we hit the streets running Saturday morning.
Residents will meet on Napoleon Avenue at 9:30 am. Walk and distribute
from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Music and Pot Luck lunch at end of the flyer
distribution back at the original Napoleon Avenue meeting spot.

Residents from each Broadmoor Neighborhood Subgroup are responsible
for placing flyers within their own neighborhood subgroup. You can view
and download the map of Broadmoor subgroups at
http://broadmoorimprovement.com/node/22

Maggie Carroll
Acting BIA Secretary
broadmoormaggie(at)gmail.com

21
jan 2006

Click HERE for
City Garbage Collection map indicating day of the week that garbage will
be collected.

15
jan 2006There will be a Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) Meeting
as follows:

14
jan 2006There was a nice rally of interested Broadmoor, Marlyville,
Fontainebleau residents on the median of Napoleon Ave at 4:00 PM today.
The informal rally was well attended with 300 or so nice folks and a
small brass band.

On August 29, 2005, I believe
we witnessed the death of old New Orleans.

Old New Orleans was a generally pleasant place to live if you ignored
the large run-down drug-infested neighborhoods, the ultra-high crime
rate, the political corruption, the lack of civic and personal
pride/responsibility, the drunken tourists common in the French Quarter,
and the infernal summer weather. New Orleans was a smaller city where
it was easy to get around and get things done with a minimum of hassle,
cost, and time. It was cheap to live in New Orleans, but just like
anything else, you get what you pay for ultimately.

12 dec 2005I'm pleased to report that Cox cable TV and internet
began functioning yesterday. We noticed that the displayed time on
the digital cable box had updated itself from "5:00" ever since the
storm to the correct time at approximately 7:00 PM last night. A
quick check of the TV and status revealed both were "good to go."

Bellsouth is apparently laying fiberoptic cables to
replace their ruined copper wire network. Their estimated date to
repair is still unknown but it could be several months. As I have
mentioned before, ADSL via Bellsouth is still functioning despite no
dialtone.

However, I have been pleasantly surprised by things
up to this point (except for the general state of the city.)

I took the opportunity this morning to explore the
neighborhood a bit more than I ever had. I took some of the usual shots
of facades but in some cases I went a little deeper. I hope you guys
don't mind the "intrusion."

The demoliton phase seems to be nearing completion
and disinfection was going on at a number of residences.

Dr. Andy Mayer and the Vega family seem to be leading
the edge of the reconstruction phase.

There are about 3 residences for sale on Vendome.

Overall, it's a bit ghostly and surreal and, of
course, sad. However, in my case, it's nice to be in my home after
10 weeks. My job with LSU is on shakey ground so I may have to end
up leaving town sometime in mid-2006.

I met a couple of neighbors including Mike Keifer (Walmsley
& Vendome) and Tony Digeorge (Grape & Octavia) who were working
today.

Hang in there!

Happy Holidays!

15 nov 2005

Bellsouth

Bellsouth telephone landline continues to be
nonfunctional with no date to resolution. However, Bellsouth
contractors blitzed the neighborhood last week and replaced all the
junction boxes on all customer residences. That is encouraging.

I accidentally plugged in my ADSL modem and found
that my high speed internet via Bellsouth does work without a
dialtone. I had heard of this phenomena but never thought that such
good luck would apply to my case. I rely on the internet for
literature searches for my job as well as news that I relay to you
on on the reconstruction process. If I had to choose between a dial
tone and ADSL, I would choose the latter.

I have ordered an EVDO card for Verizon wireless
internet on my notebook computer. I will try this out and let you
know how things go in case you relied on Cox for internet and need a
temporary (pricey) alternative. The couple who live next door have
two of these computer cards and are somewhat satisfied. This card
will be useful at work where the Ethernet LAN is slow as molasses on
a cold day.

Entergy

I called 1-800-ENTERGY and requested natural gas
service to be restored. I had to hold for 20 minutes, but I was
given a November 30 date for restoration. Apparently no certified
inspection is necessary as I once thought. This may be due to our
newly reworked street and infrastructure. As painful as the street
replacement process was, perhaps it was worth it.

Cox Cable

I called the Cox Cable repair number and requested
repair. The gentleman on the line stated "there's not much going on
there, is there?" and said they had no way to even send a truck
out. The estimated date of repair is unknown and may be a month or
longer. He suggested calling back periodically. This may be
another situation where if enough people call and express interest,
then Cox will take notice. I envy those of you with DirectTV.
Scott connected an amplified antenna to our cable system in the
house, and now we can get 4 or 5 channels on all the TVs in the
house.

I hope you find this information helpful. I will be
photographing the neighborhood again this week to capture the
progress.

...until next time...

10 nov 2005Bellsouth contractors are going through
the neighborhood replacing all the outdoor junction boxes on each
home.

We were informed yesterday that further repair would
be required to actually connect the new junction box on the outside
of one's home to the internal phone wiring. If you have a wire
maintenance contract, then it would be covered. If you do not have
such a contract and are already paying a monthly fee, the repairs
would be at some additonal cost to the customer.

I am not sure how to get the next phase completed,
but I will submit another request to Bellsouth, and I will update
you when I learn more.

9 nov 2005Following today's successfull electrical
inspection at my home, power was finally restored thanks to
Ponchatrain Electric LLC and the City of New Orleans.

The electrical repairs will continue over the next
few days to get everything working, and my outside A/C unit will be
replaced tomorrow.

The elements lacking when we move back in shortly
will be

1. landline (phone)

2. internet

3. cable tv

4 natural gas for the furnace

I've already subscribed to a form of wireless
broadband internet called EVDO which is available via Verizon for
notebook computers. It's a bit pricey but better than nothing. You
can find out more about it at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVDO

I plan on using electric space heaters if it cools
down (which seems unlikely) until natural gas is available.

In case you were wondering, street lights are now on
Vendome Place on all the blocks.

7 nov 2005Electricity is available to all or most homes on
Vendome Place. Power is switched-off at the meters and requires a
certified electrical inspection following removal of all wiring that
was submerged.

Sadly Bellsouth phone service is down for the entire
neighborhood as I mentioned. This situation is likely not to be
corrected in the near future, but I would suggest submitting a
repair request for each of your homes to speed the process. The
more requests the better...

...And the resident in the red brick home at the
corner of Grape and Vendome moved back into his home last
Friday!!!! He is the first Vendome Place resident back in, and his
home looks super with new grass and a freshly painted fence. I saw
his lights on last evening.

I hope to be back in my home in the next week or so
after the electrical inspection which is scheduled for tomorrow. I
still have to replace my outside A/C unit but only after power is
returned.

You can call my electrician which is listed in the
recommended workmen section of the website if you need some
electrical help.

Scott ended up reading up on and subsequently
installing all the major appliances we lost due to the inability to
find someone to help on a timely basis. I switched to all electric
appliances due the absence of natural gas until mid to late November
as per Entergy. The Bywater which did not have flooding is still
waiting on gas service in many areas.

6 nov 2005

I put in a request for Bellsouth to repair my telephone landline and DSL
via the Bellsouth website.

A representative called and came out the next day!

Unfortunately the junction box on the side of my house took water,
but the really sad news is that the neighborhood junction box also
took water and therefore the estimated date of repair is unknown but
likely in the range of several months.

I would suggest increasing your cell phone minutes if you have not
already done so.

I do not know the status of Cox telephone service, cable, or
internet in our neighborhood but I will get some information here in
the next 1-2 weeks.

-jaz

21 oct 2005

Karen O'brien reported to me today that her place was looted for some
costume jewelry and other items last night. Apparently the looters got
in the patio door after trying at several other attempted entrance ways.

Also the house on the corner of Walmsley and Vendome closest to
Karen was looted. This is the house with the swimming pool that is
now exposed.

The police came but can do little as there is no crime lab for
fingerprinting or other evidence. The police said they would step
up patrols and Karen was doing to ask the remaining National Guard
to do the same.

My electrical repairs are 98% completed and they may be finished
today; I will be able to move back in to 4146 when the city turns
the electricity on at my meter. This may take some time at the rate
the city is currently doing it.

IF ANYONE CAN PULL SOME STRINGS AND/OR PAY OFF SOMEONE TO GET MY
ELECTRICITY ON SOONER, SCOTT AND I WILL START A REGULAR PATROL OF
THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH FLASHLIGHTS SEVERAL TIMES PER EVENING FOR THE
WHOLE STREET!!!!

PLEASE CALL ME (JIM ZACHARY) 803-474-0484 OR SCOTT AT 504-908-3676
IF YOU CAN HELP US TO GET OUR ELECTRICITY ON EXPEDITIOUSLY.

Questions? Let me know.

Jim Zachary

18 oct 2005I'm in the neighborhood every 2-3 days. There is demolition
going on in almost every residence. The Red Cross was serving food
2 houses down from us from a van on Sunday; unfortunately it was nearly
inedible.

Thanks to Blake Heymann and John Delamatre our basement was demolished
in 72 hours. It dried for another few days and then I disinfected
it with a solution of Jo-Max, bleach, and water (the recipe is on the
Jo-Max) container. Jo-Max is a surfactant that helps to kill
microrganisms and to penetrate surfaces a bit. Apparently the mask
I wore was inadequate and I suffered moderately severe hypochlorite
(chlorine) respiratory toxicity for about 18 hours afterwards; I
essentially burned my nose, throat, bronchial tree, and lungs.

Brad,
an electrician recommended by Blake, is now rewiring my basement.
We just noticed that as soon as the electrical repairs are completed, we
will get an electrical inspection and can be hooked back onto a
functional electrical grid. Our outside power meter shows that
power is available to our house! Hopefully that can be done in
the next week or so. Unfortunately all our major appliances
including a brand new a/c unit were destroyed. However, that will
soon be remedied also. I will be replacing my gas dryer and
hotwater heater with electrical ones so that I do not have to wait for
the return of natural gas AND electricity in the future.

18 oct 2005Here is the link to the official city site with situation updates:

Its by some staff writers at the Times-Picayune on Nola.com.
Just click on the link above.

28 sept 2005
Jonathan Red writes: They put up a new telephone pole and transformers
at my house this week. Connection should occur within a week or
two. Most homes will have to be certified by an electrical contractor
prior to getting electricity. I will be down there this weekend to clean
up some more. I'll try and get more info.

26 sept 2005
This website was set up to aid the reconstruction of Vendome Place and
surrounding areas. Jim Zachary will also maintain a contact
database which will be made available only to residents. After the
Katrina issues have been resolved, this website can serve as a community
resource related to security and communications.

Please
email Jim at vendomeplace(at)gmail.com [substitute @ for (at)] with your current contact
information in this format: